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Thursday, 20 March 2014

Giraffes Can't Dance

I've had my eye on this lesson for a while now. I've spotted it a few times on the internet and the pictures look fun to do.

Its based on the book, Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae with illustrations by Guy Parker - Rees (who was our artist of the week - click here for further information)

I used the lesson plan by Patty at Deep Space Sparkle as inspiration (her lessons are always so good!) with a few changes here and there.

What you need:

A3 cartridge paper - two per student

blue, green, yellow and white paint

bamboo sticks

glue sticks

scissors

silver paint or pens

yellow and orange / brown liquid watercolors

Black permanent markers

Pencils

scrap paper to practice on

Silver glitter (optional)

Giraffe photos (optional)

How to:Week One

Read the book

Do a guided drawing of a giraffe on the whiteboard

Get the children to follow along and then on a practice piece of paper get them to draw giraffes in different dancing positions

When they are happy with one get them to copy this onto the A3 cartridge paper, first in pencil then go over lines with black permanent marker

Colour in using yellow liquid watercolour with orange / brown as spots

Leave to dry

For the background - ask them to draw a moon and a line across the bottom for the grass in pencil

Paint the grass area yellow

Paint the sky blue, ensuring they leave out the moon

Paint the moon with white paint (new brush) then go around it in circles to create the lighter blue area around the moon

Paint over the yellow grass with green paint

Scratch in grass and flowers with bamboo skewers

Leave to dry

Week Two

Cut out dancing giraffe and glue onto background

Add stars with silver paint or pen

Add glitter to stars (optional)

The Results:
These make me smile ...... Didn't they do a good job! Giraffes are pretty hard to draw for 5-9 year olds yet they took on the challenge and I love what they did. Yes a few boys drew the giraffe landing on his head (that's boys for you) and some of the girls added pink tutus (that's girls for you).

About Me

Hi my name is Fiona. I'm passionate about art and I'm always doing some sort of art or craft activity around my home. I also love gardening (we grow lots of produce) and try to live as sustainably as I can. I share my home with my loving husband, two children (Leo 9 and Poppy 11) and lots of pets. I run after school art classes and holiday workshops from my home studio. I aim to make art as fun and engaging as possible, instilling a love for creating things from an early age.